Shotlist

1. Francois Crepeau, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, sitting down for news conference

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Francois Crepeau, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants:

"Greece implements detention of children and children should not be detained. Period. The United Nations Committee on the rights of the child has determined that administrative detention can never, ever, be in the best interest of a child."

3. News conference

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Francois Crepeau, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants:

"I'd like to say that it is very difficult to have a long term vision when the reaction to different migration movements are ad hoc reactions, creating new events, creating new constraints for states, and I am thinking here of the EU-Turkey statement, which changed completely the game, from one day to the next, and Greek authorities had to retool themselves completely, in order to respond to this new normative framework."

5. News conference

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Francois Crepeau, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants:

"The priorities should be shared, and discussed, and not simply decided from week to the next. So there is need to respond to crisis with pre-prepared tools and not trying to in invent them every time there is a crisis that happens."

7. Crepeau during news conference listening to journalist

8. Crepeau getting up and leaving at the end of news conference

Storyline

A United Nations envoy for human rights has criticised the European Union's response to the refugee crisis as showing a "lack of vision," operating under legal ambiguity, and backing the detention of newly arrived migrants in Greece.

The envoy, Francois Crepeau, said the March agreement between the EU and Turkey to send back migrants reaching Europe required much stronger legal instruments to ensure legal accountability.

Greece has been detaining migrants and refugees who arrived after March 20, while some 50,000 people are stranded in the country since European countries, including Austria and Balkan states, closed their borders to migrants earlier this year.

Crepeau expressed concern that children were among those detained, and urged an immediate change in policy.

He spoke in Athens on Monday after visiting detention sites and migrant camps.